Tempos e espaços de um negócio familiar: ganhando a vida sem trabalhar para os outros

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes a family-run food stand ("churrasquinho") located in the “favela da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro, as a starting point for understanding the production of social relations and economic dynamics in peripheral urban territories. The research is based on an ethnography grounded in the everyday life of this business, closely following its owners - Jean, Carla, and Alice - and its regular patrons, many of whom are also friends, relatives, and neighbors. Particular attention is given to how time and space are experienced and managed by these actors. Based on fieldwork, the thesis argues that the churrasquinho is not merely an economic enterprise but an extension of the household and a space for the production of sociability. It serves as a structuring instance for social ties, mediating moral distinctions and practical strategies. The analysis explores how the native category of “working for others” is mobilized by research participants as part of their life strategies, revealing frameworks that cannot be fully captured by rigid dichotomies such as informal/formal or wage labor/entrepreneurship. The thesis also emphasizes the business itself as a privileged locus of social analysis, in the same way that houses are treated in anthropological literature: as spaces where family projects and life plans are formulated and enacted. The concept of “homebusiness” is proposed to understand such enterprises as integral to domestic and community configurations. Time management, resource circulation, task distribution, and the activation of support networks are shaped by local moralities, gendered roles, and future-oriented expectations, such as concerns with the daughter’s education and the pursuit of dignity in chosen work. Finally, the study proposes that the churrasquinho, as a family business, should be understood as a mode of producing and negotiating everyday life in urban peripheries, functioning simultaneously as a space of labor, leisure, care, and belonging. This research contributes to the debate on popular economies by showing how family-based enterprises act as devices that connect material and symbolic values and enable the reproduction of livelihood strategies among subordinate social groups.